The State Assembly on Thursday unanimously ratified the 122nd Constitution Amendment Bill on Goods and Services Tax (GST), passed in both Houses of the Parliament recently.
After an obituary reference, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik moved a resolution for ratification of the GST Bill in the special setting of the Assembly convened for the purpose. The Bill was passed following three hours of discussion.
leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra, BJD members Bed Prakash Agrawala and Amar Prasad Satpathy, BJP leader KV Singh Deo and Congress MlAs Prafulla Majhi and Naba Das participated in the discussion, among others.
They all hailed the Bill as a landmark tax reform move and supported the resolution.The Chief Minister thanked the members of all the parties for supporting the resolution.
“The Goods and Services Tax will bring about comprehensive reform in the indirect tax regime across the country. General consumers, businessmen and industries will gain from the GST system,” he said.
He, however, said the State Government would separately request the Centre to consider its concern over imposition of green tax on polluting goods in addition to the GST and take appropriate steps for Central Sales Tax compensation to the State up to the day the GST is adopted.
While 50 per cent of the States need to ratify the Bill for its enforcement as a law, Odisha is the 16th State to have approved the unitary tax system in the country. The Union Government has set a target to bring the GST Act into force from April 1, 2017.
After the Bill was passed, Speaker Niranjan Pujari adjourned the House sine die.